In the agricultural industry, hoofed livestock are typically housed on smooth concrete floors. This has caused the problem of livestock not having a sure footing, as such floors do not provide sufficient traction. The livestock, as for example dairy cows, slip on these types of floors causing falls and injury. These injuries can be severe enough that the animal must be humanely put down. The slick flooring also causes undue stress on the livestock, thereby effectively reducing the animals feed intake, production, weight, and overall health. These disadvantages associated with smooth concrete flooring increase costs to the owner of the livestock because of lost production and increased veterinary and nutritional needs.
For many years the agricultural industry has attempted to address the problems set out above with marginal success. For example, a process of power toweling a new barn floor to make it smooth and flat and then saw cutting grooves in the concrete has been used for many years. There are several disadvantages associated with this method including its complexity involving several steps and difficulty in obtaining a consistent and uniform finish.
Sandblasting has also been used to roughen concrete floor surfaces. Sandblasting, however, only temporarily fixes the problem for a period of about a year because the texture tends to wear off. Yet another floor treatment involves using a demolition hammer to apply a texture to the concrete floor surface. This ad hoc method often results in damage to the floor and does not result in a consistent or uniform floor surface.
These prior art surface preparation applications have been used for slatted floors as well. However, when a slat has had, for example, the grooving method applied to it, the manufacturer of the slats voids the warranty claiming that the process of saw cutting grooves into slats reduces their structural integrity with the likelihood of making the slats unsafe for livestock traffic. As such, the farmer typically refuses this option and the livestock is no further ahead.
Accordingly, the need exists for an apparatus for preparing the surface of a concrete floor in such a way as to solve the problems outlined above. Moreover, the need exists for an apparatus which can be used to prepare both flat and slatted types of floors. Such preparation must be aggressive enough so as to supply excellent footing for the livestock, but not so aggressive as to cause discomfort to the animals or affect the structural integrity of the floor. A preparation process which removes approximately one-eighth (xe2x85x9) of an inch from the floor surface is believed to be preferable and not to affect the structural integrity thereof.
The present invention, which is a milling apparatus for preparing concrete surfaces, achieves all of the objectives described above. The floor surface prepared using the milling apparatus is not so rough as to cause undue hoof abrasion, while still providing traction to supply sure footing to the livestock. This prepared floor surface promotes livestock comfort, which in turn increases feed intake, herd health and production. As well, the prepared floor surface positively factors by reducing cull rates and foot and leg problems. Furthermore, because of the reductions in injuries and deaths, the insurance industry should take note of the advantages associated with the use of the milling apparatus. Its use may ultimately reduce insurance premiums for the farmer.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a milling apparatus for preparing concrete floor surfaces to provide better traction and sure footing for livestock, in particular hoofed livestock. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a milling apparatus for preparing both flat and slatted floor surfaces.
The objects of the present invention are achieved by means of a milling apparatus comprised of a rear wheeled motorized cart connected in tandem to a traction milling machine. More specifically, the motorized cart and traction milling machine are connected by means of a specialized articulated hitch. The present invention and its constituent elements are hereinafter described.
The traction milling machine comprises a frame on which a drum is mounted. The drum has attached to its periphery a plurality of teeth for milling engagement with a floor surface. For other applications, the drum may be comprised of a plurality of saw-blades in vertical alignment, for example, for use on a rubber matted floor. Attached to the front end of the frame are forward wheel means and attached to the rearward end of the frame are rearward wheel means on which the machine moves. The forward wheel means have attached thereto forward adjustment means to vertically adjust the forward wheel means with reference to the frame. Similarly, the rearward wheel means comprising an axle have attached thereto rearward adjustment means to vertically adjust the rearward wheel means with reference to the frame. The independent forward and rearward adjustment means are used to selectively control and adjust the depth of the engagement of the drum with the floor surface. Furthermore, an extension of the frame has attached thereto operator steering means, which in one embodiment extend outwardly and rearwardly from the frame extension in the form of handles.
For use on a slatted floor, the forward wheel means described above incorporate a ski element which may be lowered into engagement with the floor surface. As well, the rearward wheel means incorporate a dolly arrangement comprising at least two longitudinally aligned wheels within a rigid frame housing. The use of the ski and dolly arrangement ensures that the traction milling machine is able to operate in a level fashion over the spaces between slots both longitudinally and transversely, thereby helping to maintain consistent and uniform contact between the drum and the floor surface.
The motorized cart has a seat for the operator and motor means to provide power to the cart to propel the cart and the traction milling machine both forwardly and rearwardly over the floor surface. The seat is located such that the operator is able to easily access the steering means as well as the forward and rearward adjustment means.
The traction milling machine and motorized cart are attached in tandem by means of specialized articulated hitch. The first portion of the hitch is pivotally mounted onto the rear axle of the traction milling machine for the purpose of weight transfer later described. The complementary second portion of the hitch is attached to the front of the motorized cart. The first hitch portion and the complementary second hitch portion are connected by means of a pin to form an articulated hitch. During operation, the articulated hitch permits the milling apparatus to be steered in response the operator""s control of the steering means and movement of the motorized cart. In effect, the milling apparatus is steered by means of directing the traction milling machine in the desired direction of travel. Essentially, the rear wheels of the traction milling machine act as the front wheels of the cart.
Importantly, the articulated hitch is further adapted to transfer a portion of the weight of the motorized cart and operator to the traction milling machine hereinafter referred to as weight transfer. Weight transfer greatly assists in keeping the traction milling machine in continuous engagement with the floor surface to provide a consistent and uniform textured finish to the floor.